The US Environmental Protection Agency is studying oil and gas wastewater management requirements and policies with the intention of producing a white paper early in 2019 that will help it determine if new federal regulations are necessary, officials said Oct. 9. They also acknowledged that it will be difficult. Source: News
Hurricane Michael prompts evacuations
Operators had moved workers off 10 production platforms as of midday Oct. 8 as Hurricane Michael entered the Gulf of Mexico, reported the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. No fixed drilling rigs had been evacuated. Five dynamically position rigs had been moved out of the storm’s path. Source: News
US clears Serica’s plans for fields off UK
Serica Energy PLC and BP PLC have received a conditional license and assurance from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control allowing work to continue at Rhum gas field in the UK North Sea although National Iranian Oil Co. holds a 50% interest through a subsidiary. The development allows Serica to proceed with acquisitions that will […]
Seneca, Cabot sign takeaway capacity deal on Leidy South expansion
Williams’s Transco interstate pipeline executed binding, 15-year commitments with Seneca Resources Co. LLC and Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. for 100% of the 580 million dekatherms of firm transportation capacity under its proposed Leidy South expansion project designed to expand Marcellus and Utica takeaway capacity. Source: News
Valeura spuds West Turkey appraisal well
Valeura Energy Inc., Calgary, expects drilling to take 80 days at the first of three appraisal wells it plans to assess the vertical and lateral extent of its basin-centered gas accumulation play in northwestern Turkey. Source: News
Woodside choses contractor for Pluto LNG Train 2
Woodside Energy Ltd., Perth, has chosen Bechtel as the preferred execution contractor for the proposed expansion of its Pluto LNG facility on the Burrup Peninsula near Karratha in Western Australia. Woodside said it would work closely with Bechtel in preparation for award of the contract for the front-end engineering and design phase of the Pluto project. […]
DNO to spud Baeshiqa test in Kurdistan
DNO is preparing to spud the first well on its Baeshiqa license east of Mosul in Iraqi Kurdistan after having raised production at Peshkabir oil field to the northwest to 50,000 b/d. The first Baeshiqa well will target Cretaceous strata. A second well will target Jurassic and Triassic layers on the same structure. A third […]
MARKET WATCH: Crude oil prices retreat as supply disruption concerns ease
Crude oil prices retreated slightly on both the New York and London markets Oct. 8 with light, sweet crude prices dropping 5¢/bbl while Brent crude price prices dropped about 24¢/bbl, attributed, in part, to indications that market disruption from pending sanctions on Iranian supply may be less impactful than expected. Source: News
Aramco, Total advance plan for Jubail integrated petrochemical complex
Saudi Aramco and Total SA have signed an agreement to launch front-end engineering design for their previously announced proposal to add an integrated petrochemical complex downstream of their jointly held Saudi Aramco Total Refinery & Petrochemicals Co.’s 440,000-b/d full conversion refinery in Jubail, on Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast. Source: News
Drilling contractors Ensco, Rowan merging
Ensco PLC and Rowan Cos. PLC have agreed definitively to merge in an all-stock deal forming an offshore drilling contractor with 82 rigs with current operations and contracts off six continents. Source: News